I have just pressed the publish button on Ravelry and the 3rd Anniversary CAL is launched!

The pattern is now available at a discount for a week – part 1 is included now, parts 2 and 3 will follow. You can find it on Ravelry and on LoveCrochet.

As usual this ia a scary moment for me – will you like the design? Will anyone want to join in the CAL? These and other questions are flooding my mind!

To tempt you here’s a sneaky peek at part 1:

Part 1 in progress

Please do join in the CAL on the Agrarian Artisan Designs’ forum on Ravelry – you can chat about progress, ask questions and generally have great fun. And post finished projects on the thread to be eligible for the prize draw.

As well as all the excitement of the CAL I’ve had another couple of designs published – Lariat Belt in Inside Crochet and Boho Top in Mollie Makes – what a week!!? I’ll post more on these in another blog post, meanwhile……

The pattern will be released in 3 parts and will be available on Ravelry and on LoveCrochet/LoveKnitting. Part 1 will be published on 31st July and parts 2 and 3 follow at weekly intervals.

The motifs can be used together in just about any project using whatever yarn you like (stashing busting is very appropriate!). I am making a cushion with mine, but I would love to see other uses – a blanket, a scarf or whatever you like. As it is mandala inspired you may even like to make a set of mandalas!

The pattern costs £3. However, on publication on 31st July I will release a coupon code for those purchasing on Ravelry – the first 10 people using the coupon code will be able to get the pattern free. Once those coupon codes are used up the pattern will be automatically discounted on Ravelry by £2 for the first week and £1 for the second week. These discounts will also apply on LoveCrochet/LoveKnitting, which will be handy for those of you purchasing yarn.

There will be a prize draw at the end of September, all finished projects published on the FO thread on Ravelry will be eligible for the prize draw – whatever the FO is! Multiple entries will be allowed. Prizes TBA in due course.

If you want to make a cushion then this is the yarn I used (but this isn’t compulsory!):
Drops Alpaca, 100% alpaca, 50g/164m/182yds per ball. 1 ball each of:
Goldenrod (2923), Red (3620), Orange (2915), Lime (7300) and Off White (Main colour) (0100)
3.0mm (US D/3) crochet hook
My cushion had a different front and back, if you want to have them the same you may need 2 balls of the Main Colour.

I’ve been a little quiet on this blog for a while. That’s because I’m working hard in the background on my annual MCAL (mystery crochet-a-long). This is planned to launch on 1st August, and the pattern instalments will be available on Ravelry and LoveCrochet. It is mandala-themed and quite colourful. More information coming soon………. meanwhile a tiny little peek (as tiny as I can make it!):

Do you suffer from spontaneous projects? You know the sort – you have plenty of projects to finish but an idea erupts in your head and you have to run with it and start a spontaneous project.

That happened to me this week, but it was worse than just a spontaneous project. You see I tidied my stash cupboard, and I had a bag full of yarn to give away. First stop was knitgroup on Tuesday, and some yarn was gratefully received but there was plenty left. Second stop was knitgroup on Friday, more yarn was gratefully received and there was still some left. The next stop should be the charity shop. But before I go further I should add that my knitgroup are very charitable and anyone receiving yarn from a de-stash pops a donation into the ‘charity purse’, when the purse reaches £50 that money is donated to a charity chosen by one of the knitgroup. So every stop along the de-stash route is charitable.

Except I didn’t plan to go to the charity shop until next week and on Friday I just looked at the remaining de-stash and well…..the spontaneous project erupted! It was all because I’d been inspired by a rucksack I’d seen in a magazine, it was made using the V stitch. I didn’t want a rucksack but I just loved the idea of a V stitch in a bag. So I used some of my de-stash; a couple of skeins of Rowan Creative Linen became this:

Dolly Drawstring Bag

I feel a bit guilty, because the remaining de-stash was destined for the charity shop and I’ve probably deprived them of some much needed funds. So even though it was my yarn, I ended up popping some money in the charity purse!

I’m not writing up the pattern, but it is pretty straightforward – just make a base the size and shape you like and make the sides using V stitch, finish the top any way you like (I made a few rows of dc and added handles by making some slits in the dc section and threading the handles through like a drawstring or dolly bag).